South African Minister of State Security Dipuo Letsatsi-Duba makes it clear that while the Jewish community is under no particular threat, the department of state security takes seriously its mandate to protect the country’s citizens.

Lawyers are preparing criminal and civil charges following one of the darkest weeks of anti-Semitism in South Africa. There have been a slew of vile incidents that sent shock waves through the community.

The SA Friends of the Beit Halochem Zahal Disabled Veterans Organisation was established in Johannesburg in 1982, its primary goal being to help and support Zahal disabled veterans by raising funds to help them return and resume their normal lives as soon as possible.

Dr Ali Bacher, former South African cricket captain and administrator, was one of the five recipients of the 2018 Steve Tshwete Lifetime Achievement Awards at the SA Sport Awards held in Bloemfontein on Sunday night.

Devotion to the cause of the State of Israel flourishes in the most unlikely places, even in societies where the Jewish presence is small to non-existent. Such is the case in Mozambique, where the work of Beth-El Associacao Crista Amigos De Israel - Mozambican Christian Friends of Israel - testifies to how much can be achieved by those inspired by their Christian faith to promote the Israeli cause, despite adverse conditions.

JNF’s unique “Blue Boy Box” now lives at King David Linksfield Pre-Primary so that children of each generation learn the importance of tzedakah (charity or welfare). It is the responsibility of Jews all over the world to build Israel, develop it and nurture it as the home of the Jewish nation

“Knowledge is Light” was our school motto when I was a child in Durban. The importance of education was made clear to us from as far back as I can remember. It wasn’t taken for granted. A good education was a privilege.

Late on Tuesday, a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect. While at the time of writing the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) had still not confirmed the existence of such a truce, Israeli citizens living in the south of the country were told they could return home and to “normalcy”.

The Israeli gymnastics team was out in full force at 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships that began at Aspire Dome in Doha, Qatar, on Thursday. There are five males and two females in the team headed by new Israeli sensation Artem Dolgopyat. The others are Alexander Shatilov, Ilan Korchak, Andrey Medvedev, and Michael Sorokine, while the women are Ofir Netzer and Meitar Lavy.

As I was heading home on Tuesday, I heard on ChaiFM that 460 rockets had been fired from Gaza into Israel since late Sunday. That is an outrageous number. If every one of them hit inhabited areas, thousands of Israelis would have been killed.

“The president is not directly responsible for acts of domestic terrorism, but he should be more careful with his language.” That’s the way the Economist headlined its report on the horrific Pittsburgh killings just more than two weeks ago.

With Prince William’s historic visit to Israel this week, all eyes have been trained on the Jewish capital. It may have taken 70 years, but the first official visit by a member of the British Royal family began in Israel on Monday, when William, the Duke of Cambridge, arrived in Tel Aviv.

Some 5 600 emissaries (shluchim) from Chabad-Lubavitch from all over the world gathered at the Pier 8 warehouse in Brooklyn, New York this week for the opening of their four-day annual international conference and banquet, 75 years after the arrival of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, from Europe.

“The greatness of our nation is that our people are great. We are a nation of heroes, of people with good and decent moral fibre who will not tolerate our country being plundered!” So said Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein in Pretoria this morning.“This is a struggle for accountability and justice,” Goldstein told the crowd (which included prominent Jewish CEOs like Adrian Gore, Stephen Koseff and Michael Katz). “This struggle is about sovereignty. The power of the people always triumphs in the end.”

Timeous kashrut alerts a big challenge to BD

The Johannesburg Beth Din answers comments like: “Excuse me, but what good will it do to send an alert? What about a person who doesn't have e-mail? Or who missed this e-mail? Or who forgot this e-mail? This is outrageous. As long as (these) products remain available, the BD UOS/SA is 'placing a stumbling block before the blind'. Why have they not insisted on a total recall? What can we trust anymore?” Read what kashrut head Greg Bloch has to say and how YOU can keep up to date...

by
ANT KATZ | Jan 20, 2016

The Johannesburg Beth Din came under criticism from kosher consumers over the past week after issuing a “Kosher Alert” that cheese products packed by Kee Ingredients and displaying the name Kee Wings on their packaging, contain an unauthorised Beth Din logo and cannot be eaten.

User comments centred on two main issues: the non-removal of goods from store shelves; and the confusion facing kosher consumers.

The kashrut division of the Johannesburg Beth Din says, however, that kosher consumers don’t always understand the lengths the Beth Din will go to remedy, or protect the community from non-kosher or unsupervised products.

Jewish Report spoke to the head of kashrut at the Johannesburg Beth Din, Greg Bloch, PICTURED RIGHT, to get a better understanding of the issues.

"From time to time companies make errors on their packaging,” explains Bloch. “This includes their use of the Beth Din kashrut logo on products illegally. The Beth Din logo is a legally protected trademark which cannot be used without our authorisation. This is a very serious matter as it could result in people eating food that is not kosher.”

Included amongst the user comments posted on last week’s story on Jewish Report online was one by a Miriam de Vos: “Excuse me, but what good will it do to send an alert? What about a person who doesn't have e-mail? Or who missed this e-mail? Or who forgot this e-mail? This is outrageous. As long as (these) products remain available, the BD UOS/SA is 'placing a stumbling block before the blind'. Why have they not insisted on a total recall? What can we trust anymore?”

Bloch told Jewish Report that “each and every instance of unauthorised logo usage we become aware of, is treated with the utmost severity to ensure that it is resolved as quickly as possible”.

He says that the kashrut division “does not have the legal right to remove products from the (store) shelves without a court order”. Wherever necessary, however, the kashrut division does pursue legal action.

“Given the unavoidable, time-consuming and complex nature of this legal process, we inform the community immediately and engage with the offending company to resolve the matter,” he said.

“At the same time, we make every effort to notify the community in real-time through as many communication platforms as possible to prevent people from unknowingly eating food that may not be kosher.”

Bloch advises kosher consumers who do not currently receive regular kashrut updates to subscribe to ensure that they receive all kashrut alerts immediately. Subscribe to e-mail alerts by -mailing [email protected]

3 Comments

3
UOS
26 Aug

STAFF ANNOUNCEMENT
Greg Bloch has announced that he will be leaving the UOS in order to advance his career in commerce.

Since taking up his position, Greg has given the organisation excellent service, with great dedication. We part ways on excellent terms and wish Greg every success in his future endeavours. Greg has kindly offered to continue assisting the UOS in any way possible.

2
Nachie
26 Aug

Mr Editor, the previous post was NOT from the UOS, I was sharing an email sent out by the UOS. You can change the name if you wish.

​​​SAJR did check the veracity of this comment with Greg Bloch who confirmed it to be the case -ONLINE EDITOR